


Your Star is in the Sky, so Go Ahead Align It

by chiako_kun



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Boys Being Boys, Boys Being Idiots, Drinking, Future Fic, M/M, Misunderstandings, Post-Canon, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-18 05:30:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4693844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiako_kun/pseuds/chiako_kun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After high school, Kageyama goes on to join the pros and Hinata...doesn't. After a big misunderstanding occurs the night they're officially supposed to part ways, Kageyama stops talking to Hinata. </p><p>Things suddenly pick up a few years later when some meddling friends and the greater universe at large bring them back together again and give them a second chance to patch things up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my contribution to the Haikyuu Big Bang for 2015! AKA the year I didn't manage to finish on time because I am somehow and Adult and real life was Very Busy. 
> 
> Special thanks to:  
> my beta [Vron](http://moresciencestuff.tumblr.com) for being super awesome and kicking my butt to get even this much done
> 
> to the totally amazing artist I worked with [frenchpressplease](http://frenchpressplease.tumblr.com) who went totally above and beyond and did multiple drawings for my fic. Her art will be posted as soon as I have a link to it! 
> 
> my writing buddy [Korin](http://lovelesslybelovel.tumblr.com) who has a super cute AsaNoya fic in the BB this year as well. 
> 
> Title is from the song Colors by Genevieve, check it out if you have a chance!
> 
> Otherwise please read and enjoy. Any questions/comments can be left here or at my tumblr [amisgurumis](http://amisgurumis.tumblr.com)! Feel free to also just drop by and scroll through or say hi

_Kageyama dropped his dufflebag onto the floor of the entryway and jumped back just as the door swung open with enough force to slide his bag several inches across the floor and smash it against the wall._

_“Kageyama!”_

_Hinata bounced in, somehow managing to kick off his shoes without tripping over any of Kageyama’s packing while also managing to balance a box in one hand and several trays on the other._

_“What--Hinata what the hell is all that?”_

_Hinata shoved the door closed and beamed at him. “It’s your last few hours here before you go to join the pro volleyball world, we have to celebrate!” Hinata jumped forward, stumbling slightly over the step up and ended up shoving the trays into Kageyama’s chest. “I even splurged and got the good meat bentos from the konbini. My bank account will weep at the end of the month but we sure won’t tonight!”_

_Kageyama took the trays with a wry smile and turned around to walk them inside to the table. Hinata bounced along beside him, whatever was in the box he still carried clinking together as they moved._

_Their “kitchen” was more of a closet with a refrigerator and sink and a tiny folding table shoved into one corner. The dishes which had been ignored for a little too long were beginning to overflow from the sink onto the rarely used stove. It was technically Kageyama’s turn to do them but he hadn’t exactly had time and Hinata didn’t seem willing to nag him about it as he usually would._

_Kageyama set the bentos on the table as Hinata dropped the cans heavily in the middle. Kageyama glanced over at them and--_

_“--that’s beer! What the hell Hinata we’re not legal! How did you even--?”_

_Hinata just kept on grinning back at him as he hooked a leg around his chair to pull it out so he could drop heavily into it. “Bokuto-san gave it to me after practice today! He said the only proper way to celebrate your send-off is to drink the good stuff.” For the first time his smile wavered slightly as he glanced at the cans. “I guess this is the good stuff, he would know right?”_

_Kageyama shrugged and sat in his own seat, muttering a quick thanks under his breath as he popped the plastic lid off his bento._

_Hinata followed suit and started shoving food into his mouth, pausing to chew for a moment and looking inquisitively at the beer cans before reaching for one and pulling it out of the plastic holder. He popped the lid and slid it to Kageyama before grabbing one for himself and doing the same._

_“So we have to toast right? Then we’ll toast to your success and a quick rise to the starting setter position!” Kageyama barely had time to grab his can before Hinata smashed his own into it, making the fluid slosh around inside and spilling a few drops onto the table. Kageyama caught his quick grimace before he started chugging like his life depended on it._

_Kageyama only took a quick sip of his own (it was bitter and disgusting!) before setting it down and pushing it away._

_Hinata slammed his can down on the table, the tinny sound it made this time indicating that it was empty. “Gross! I think Bokuto-san was trying to trick me…” Despite his statement he reached for another and opened it._

_Kageyama ate slowly and watched as Hinata plowed through the rest of his food and managed to somehow finished four cans of beer even though he had never touched a drop of alcohol in his life._

_He was definitely swaying slightly in his seat by the time Kageyama collected the empty plastic trays for the recycling._

_“H-hey Kageyama,” Hinata called as he was sorting the garbage. “I’m going to miss you, you know that right? You’re going off and leaving me and we--we were supposed to do that together. But it’s just you going and I’m going to be here in our apartment all by myself until I can find a roommate because I can’t afford it by myself and--it’s not fair.”_

_Kageyama glanced up at the clock on the wall and sighed when he saw the time. “Dumbass you can’t start giving a speech now, I have to go.”_

_Hinata snorted and then dissolved into laughter as he stood up and started wobbling towards the entryway. “Right right riiiiiight. Got a train to catch so you can leeeaaave.”_

_Kageyama stayed a step behind Hinata to make sure he didn’t trip and injure himself, and was glad he did when they got back to the door and Hinata immediately tripped over his own shoes and made a valiant attempt to headbutt the door._

_Kageyama grabbed the back of his shirt to haul him upright again and suddenly found Hinata’s arms around him and Hinata’s hair tickling the bottom of his chin. Hinata was holding onto him as if he was afraid to let go, like he was trying to hold Kageyama together so he didn’t break into a million irreparable pieces._

_Kageyama’s arms slowly went around Hinata as well, and let himself squeeze Hinata back just as tightly._

_“Hinata.” Kageyama loosened his arms but Hinata kept squeezing. “Hinata. I have to go, I’ll be late.”_

_He could feel Hinata shaking his head more through the shifting of Hinata’s nose over his collarbone than anything else--but he still didn’t let go._

_“Dumb--Hina…” Kageyama took a deep breath and let it out and was suddenly seized with the urge to do something crazy. After all he was about to leave and Hinata was drunk and no matter what he remembered Kageyama wouldn’t have to be around tomorrow to deal with the fallout in person. “Shouyou.”_

_Hinata stiffened and his head came up so quickly he knocked Kageyama on the chin. Kageyama clenched his teeth for a moment through the quick burst of pain and looked down to see Hinata was staring up at him with shining eyes._

_“Hi--Shouyou. I need to go. But I want you...you should...I...li--love you. Like you a lot more than I probably should you stupid drunk idiot.”_

_Hinata beamed up at him and Kageyama felt his heart stutter in his chest. “Kageyama, I love you a whole lot too! You’re going to go take the pro volleyball world by storm and it’s going to be amazing. And me, I’m going to get to tell everyone I know that you, that Kageyama Tobio the volleyball player is my best friend in the whole world!”_

_Kageyama felt his heart stutter again for all the wrong reasons as a chill worked it’s way down his spine. He reached behind him and pried Hinata’s arms off, dropping them and taking a step back as Hinata tried to latch onto him again. “I’m leaving now. Go drink a glass of water and get to bed, you’re going to have a lot to regret in the morning.”_

_He hefted his dufflebag to his shoulder and grabbed his suitcase. The last thing he saw as he wheeled it out the door and let it fall shut behind him was Hinata sitting on the floor staring at Kageyama as he walked away._

 

 

(art by [frenchpressplease](http://frechpressplease.tumblr.com))


	2. Chapter 1

Kageyama had a short and mildly terrifying flashback to his high school days as he walked through Karasuno’s front gate with Nishinoya chattering away at his side. There were a few minor differences (had they painted it a different color? and the classroom layout that he could see through the nearest window looked just a little different than what he remembered) but otherwise it was similar enough to make him feel like he was just heading to a regular team practice.

 

“--see Kageyama I told you it would be a good idea to do this community service here, it feels sort of like coming home, doesn’t it? Good old Karasuno has just been waiting for us.” Kageyama shrugged as he glanced to the side at Nishinoya who was grinning up at him. “And look, the principle even came out to greet us.”

 

Kageyamas shifted his eyes forward, and was surprised to see that the principle was the same one who had been around during his high school days. The man was totally bald now and had clearly given up on trying to use a wig to hide it (and that was probably his and--his fault), and he was looking more and more worried with every stop Nishinoya and Kageyama took towards him.

 

“H-hello!” The man cleared his throat and gave both of them a very strained smile. “I can’t tell you how excited we are to have two such esteemed graduates come back to visit us. I meant for there to be more of a welcoming party but it seems there was a minor mishap in one of the supplementary sessions and my colleagues were called away to deal with it.”

 

Kageyama rolled his eyes as Nishinoya snorted--they both clearly understood that the teachers had done their best to get out seeing two of their dumber students (one a still notorious troublemaker) no matter how famous they were now.

 

“So, welcome back!” The principal clapped his hands together. “I’ll just show you the way--”

 

“Nuh uh.” Nishinoya waved a hand and jumped past the man. “We spent three years practically living in that gym, we’re perfectly capable of showing ourselves there. Why don’t you just get back to your job, yeah?”

 

Nishinoya grinned in his usual devilish fashion and Kageyama slapped a smile onto his face as well. They must have made quite the picture because the older man jumped and then hurried off without even saying goodbye to them.   
  
Nishinoya started laughing while Kageyama frowned at his back. “Well that’s one obstacle down. I bet he still hasn’t forgiven you and Shouyo for that wig thing way back when. I heard the coach still tells that story whenever he can!”

 

Kageyama frowned harder and stomped off towards the gym. “Who the hell is the coach that they even remember that and would want to tell it to anyone?”

 

“Aww Kageyama wait up!” Despite his words Nishinoya caught up easily, falling into step beside him. “Can’t we go back to our senpai-kouhai days when you could take some harmless teasing?”

 

“Nope.” Kageyama sped up again and turned the corner and there was the gym rising up in front of them. “Just because I’m not a grumpy hormonal teenager anymore doesn’t mean I’ll let you get away with anything like that.”

 

Nishinoya didn’t reply but instead darted past him. Kageyama had to run the last fifteen feet in order to catch up by the time Nishinoya had thrown open the gym door and announced, “We’re coming in!”

 

There was a huddle of boys inside the gym with their coach and they all whipped their heads around to stare at Kageyama and Noya. Kageyama was sure they made quite the picture with Nishinoya looking over excited and himself probably slightly dishevelled from the unexpected run.

 

“It’s about time Noya-san!”

 

As the coach bounded over and started doing a complicated handshake with Noya, Kageyama realized that he was looking at Tanaka-senpai from his high school volleyball days. The man was definitely older, more tan, and most surprisingly had hair on his head instead of shaving nearly everything off, but watching Tanaka and Noya together made it seem like it hadn’t been years since they had played on the same team.

  
“Kiddos!” Tanaka spun around quickly and straightened up before waving a hand dramatically toward Kageyama and Nishinoya. “This happens to be surprise you guys kept asking about. We were lucky enough to have been selected as a school to receive a pair of guests coaches for the week. So let I introduce to you Nishinoya Yuu and Kageyama Tobio. They are alumni of Karasuno but you may know them better at the starting setter and libero for the All Japan Men’s National Team.” Somebody gasped, but the only other sound in the gym was the squeaking of somebody’s shoes. “They’ll be helping out our team and the girl’s team for our summer training camp this week _if_ the girls ever actually make it.”

 

“Sorry!” Somebody shouted from the distance as a tall girl dashed into the gym. She was quickly followed by ten other girls of various sizes (including one messy haired redhead who nearly gave Kageyama a heart attack when she ran by). The girls went to form their own huddle near the boys, all staring at Kageyama and Nishinoya with expressions ranging from excited recognition to total shock.

 

One more girl with glasses and black pigtails stumbled in and wheezed her way over to the rest of the girls as a man fell against the doorway and wiped an arm across his forehead, doing little to help the sweat soaked bangs plastered against it. “Sorry sorry, Mizumachi-chan got lost again and it wasn’t fair to let anyone come back until--” He halted in the middle of his sentence as he straightened up and immediately locked with eyes Kageyama who numbly stared back.

 

The cool air in the gym suddenly felt suffocating and Kageyama’s ears began to ring as bright hazel eyes that he hasn’t seen in years held the contact with his own, both of them unable to break contact.

 

“What are you doing here?” Hinata took a step forward that was more hesitant than anything Kageyama has ever seen him do in their entire time knowing each other. “Kage--”

 

“I’m leaving.” The ringing got louder and Kageyama was suddenly aware that the strap of his gym bag was biting into his palm. He hadn’t even been aware he had taken hold of it let alone that he was clutching it tightly enough to hurt. “I can’t--”

 

He started walking stiffly towards the gym door regardless of Hinata being between him and his escape route.

 

Behind him the gym exploded into yelling and conversations, too many for him to follow. He managed to pick out someone calling, “Kageyama!” and another that sounded like Nishinoya adding, “Hey wait, we can talk about this!” He was almost to where Hinata was standing frozen when suddenly a scream rang out shrilly above the rest of the noise.

 

He heard the same voice add, “TOBI-NII!” before someone crashed hard into his spine and he stumbled forward, falling into Hinata and managing to keep himself upright only because the other man seemed to have already been braced for impact.

 

Kageyama pushed him away and whipped around, dislodging the girl despite her best attempts to stay wrapped around his abdomen. “What--”

 

“Tobi-nii it really _is_ you!” Kageyama stared down into the very familiar hazel eyes in a slightly more feminine face surrounded by similarly familiar ginger hair. Hinata Natsu was beaming up at him looking painfully akin to what her brother had looked like during his high school days.

 

Kageyama whipped around to look at Hinata who was staring at him, then back to Natsu who was preparing to pounce on him again. “What?”

 

Natsu giggled as Hinata coughed uncomfortably. Kageyama turned around slowly to look at him, expression murderous (or so he hoped). “What.”

 

Natsu giggled again and he quickly turned to face her. “I’m on the girls’ team and Onii-chan is the coach! I mean--” Natsu coughed. “Hinata-sensei is the coach of our team.”

 

“Oh really.” Kageyama looked past her to where Tanaka and Nishinoya were standing together, the two of them managing not to looking even the faintest bit guilty. “I bet you two knew about this.”

 

“It shouldn’t be a problem, you two used to play on the same team.” Tanaka started examining his nails and Nishinoya just grinned at him.

 

Kageyama glared back at both of them.

 

In response Tanaka clapped his hands together and spun around to face the two huddles of high schoolers who were staring in awe at the proceedings. “Well now, that’s plenty of excitement for the morning. You know what else is exciting? Having two pros take you guys through their usual warm up routine!”

 

There was a chorus of groans from both teams with someone adding, “We’re going to die.” Natsu looked strangely excited by the prospect as she trotted off to join the rest of the girls where they were starting to get into halfhearted lines. Nishinoya had somehow managed to dump his bag and get to the front of both groups again, yelling instructions and starting to lead them through stretches.

 

“Kageyama…”

 

Kageyama didn’t turn around to look at Hinata, barely even acknowledged him other than a shake of his head. “I don’t want to talk about it. Not right now.”

 

“Then what about--” Kageyama felt a hand land on his shoulder and he pulled away so he could cross the gym instead. He could feel Hinata radiating hurt behind him but he didn’t care because it was just the beginning of payback for that drunken rejection many years ago. Hinata had started it anyway, so Kageyama would pay it back in kind now if he was going to be forced to see him again.

 

He dumped his bag beside Nishinoya’s and went to join the other man for the warm up.

 

The kids looked ready to drop by the time Kageyama and Nishinoya finished up with them, despite the fact they were doing only half of what they usually did to warm up. Tanaka looked like he regretted joining in on the exercises to encourage the kids to keep going, but Hinata looked like he could have done the full warm up and more if he had been asked.

 

“Al...alright.” Tanaka waddled to the front of the group to stand between Nishinoya and Kageyama. He threw an arm over Nishinoya’s shoulder, not managing to hide at all that he was leaning on Nishinoya for support. “Let’s start with receiving practice. I’ll let Nishinoya-san take over with you guys, Kageyama-san, Hinata-sensei you’re with me.”

 

Tanaka immediately transferred his arm to Kageyama’s shoulder and Kageyama immediately shook him off to duck under the net and stand on the other side of the court. He watched as Nishinoya explained something to the kids that seemed to require a lot of arm waving and dramatic gestures--it was probably a story about one of his “famous” saves while playing for the pros.

 

“Hey Kageyama?” Kageyama turned around slowly to face Hinata who sounded almost sheepish when trying to get his attention. Tanaka wasn’t paying any attention to them, instead rolling a giant basket of balls towards the back of the court while whistling some pop song.

 

“What.”

 

“Since there’s three of us Tanaka and I wanted to do a bump-set-spike drill to send the ball over the net for this practice. We won’t have this opportunity often and we want to take advantage of it while we can. If you don’t want to though, I’m sure we can figure out something--”

 

“It’s fine. Bump-set-spike you said.” Kageyama’s eyes flicked back to Tanaka who was still whistling and was tossing a ball up in the air. “Will you…”

 

“--I’ll be bumping! I uh. I can’t do as much...” Hinata’s eyes shifted slowly down to his feet and he frowned, but quickly whipped his eyes up to Kageyama’s again. “Tanaka’s going to spike. He’s more in practice doing it anyway so it’ll be better for the kids.”

 

“Oh. Okay.” Kageyama let his eyes fall slowly to stare at Hinata’s knees for a moment despite how rude he knew it would be. In response Hinata shuffled backwards and when Kageyama pulled his eyes back up he looked vaguely embarrassed.

 

“Hey, whenever you slowpokes are done chatting, we’re ready for you over here!”

 

Kageyama turned to glare through the net at Nishinoya who was grinning and waving at him with all the kids clustered behind him. Two of them flinched and it was sort of nice to know that his glares hadn’t lost their touch.

 

On his side of the net everyone moved into position and began.

 

The bump-set-spike routine became monotonous quickly. Tanaka was the only one who got had any sort of variety in his assigned role, hitting the ball wherever he wanted to make the kids try their hardest to receive it well.

 

Kageyama didn’t even have to move in order to set the ball to Tanaka, because surprisingly every bump came right to him without fail.

 

A few balls later though he thought something sounded different when Hinata hit it and was proved right when Hinata yelled right after, “Sorry sorry, s’one is a little high.” Kageyama looked up at the ball as it arced gracefully towards him, then turned to shoot Hinata a disapproving look. Hinata was looking back at him though, and their eyes met and locked with one another. Kageyama could feel the ball start to descend without needing to look, but he couldn’t pull his eyes away from Hinata’s as something old and familiar sparked to life between them. The ball was falling quickly but because of how high Hinata had hit it and there was plenty of time to make the move the few feet to best set it to Tanaka. But in that moment that Hinata and Kageyama’s eyes refused to part a decision was reached between them.

 

The ball landed right in Kageyama’s waiting hands and he set it in a perfectly remembered extra-quick oddball duo style right to where Hinata’s palm was already waiting to spike it.

 

The volleyball thudded into the ground right beside Nishinoya, and bounced away to the back of the gym while every single one of the students stared in awe at Kageyama and Hinata.

 

Kageyama turned around slowly to where Hinata was still standing, staring at his palm. Hinata looked up slowly to meet Kageyama’s gaze again and offered him a slightly watery smile.

 

And then the gym burst into noise.

 

“That was amazing--” “--can we learn that--” “--you disappeared--” “--I didn’t think anyone could move that fast--” “--like he was aiming for sensei’s hand--”

 

“Hey hey whoa whoa guys!” Nishinoya gave Kageyama a hard look then turned and started waving his hands at the kids to get their attention. “If you work really hard maybe one day you’ll be able to learn to do that. It takes years of practice to get the timing down and…”

 

It was a lie, a bold faced and blatant lie and anybody who even remotely knew about Kageyama’s roots as a volleyball player had heard about his past with the amazing decoy wing spiker who could maneuver as fast as lightning and jump higher than any human his size should be able to. There weren’t too many people who remembered exactly who Kageyama’s old partner was or could be bothered to dig up the name, but in that moment Kageyama was reminded just why he had come to love volleyball so much during his high school years.

 

“Hey.” Hinata looked away from his hand to Kageyama. Kageyama gave a curt nod. “Nice.”

 

Hinata snorted and quickly dissolved into low chuckles instead. “Well, if something had to change since I last saw you I guess you being able to give compliments now was a good place to start.” He sobered immediately, mirth falling from his face as he seemed to realize what he had said. “I mean uh…”

 

“I thought you said you couldn’t jump anymore.” Kageyama looked away, towards the other side of the net where Nishinoya was still trying to calm the kids down.

 

“I can but I shouldn’t. The doctor said…” Kageyama could practically feel his shrug. “I couldn’t enough for it to have mattered back then.”

 

The two of them fell into an awkward silence again, one that they didn’t quite manage to shake off again for the rest of the practice.

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 2

“Kageyama!” Nishinoya called as he jogged across the gym to where Kageyama was packing his bag up. The kids were cleaning the floor and getting the equipment put away and he had to dodge around several of them to make it to Kageyama’s side. “We’re getting dinner with Hinata and Tanaka tonight.”

 

“I don’t want to.” Kageyama threw his bag strap over his shoulder and stood.

 

“Ah ah ah.” Nishinoya threw himself between Kageyama and the door and reached up to shake a finger in his face. “I wasn’t asking I was telling you. We’re doing it.”

 

Kageyama’s frown deepened but before he could open his mouth again Nishinoya pushed his finger up farther and flicked his nose. “No objections. Suga-san has the night free and is coming to eat with us.” Kageyama jerked his head back as Noya went to flick him again. “Also I’ll lock you out of the room if you don’t come. How does sleeping in the hallway for the rest of the week sound to you?”

 

Kageyama knew in that moment that no matter what response he gave he wasn’t going to win. There wasn’t any excuse short of a dead relative that could stop Nishinoya once he made up his mind.

 

He gave a long sign and shut his eyes. “Okay. Fine.”

 

Nishinoya’s face brightened immediately. “Great! We can run back and shower and then meet them after that, yeah?”

 

“Sure.” Kageyama shrugged and gave him a suspicious look. “Seems like you had it all planned out already.”

 

“Of course I did!” Nishinoya hopped back a few times, grinning. “Let’s get going already, the sooner we’re done the sooner we can get to seeing everyone.”

 

And just like that Nishinoya was hurrying him out of the door and back to the room they had rented for the week. He was hurried through his shower and back into clothes and out the door and he felt like his head was still spinning by the time he was being pushed into a seat at a table in a bar.

 

Hinata was seated across from him, Tanaka next to him already halfway through a beer and calling for more for the rest of them.

 

“We really shouldn’t be--”

 

“Just one won’t hurt Kageyama. I won’t tell coach if you don’t.”

 

Kageyama sighed. Across from him Hinata grabbed his previously untouched glass of beer and took a long gulp from it.

 

“Sorry I’m late, sorry sorry.” Suga-san bustled over and dropped into the seat at the end of the table. He took a moment to smooth the front of his shirt down and then beamed over at all of them. “It’s so nice to see all of you again, I think it’s been too long. Especially for you Nishinoya, Kageyama. How have the two of you been?”

 

Noya grinned and grabbed a beer as soon as it was put on the table in front of him, downing half of it in one go. “It’s been great. Hopefully we’ll be able to come back during the off season and do this again.”

 

Suga nodded as Nishinoya slid another beer in front of him. “That would be nice. Maybe we can coordinate your visit with one of the weeks the daycare is closed…”

 

Kageyama let the conversation wash over him as Suga, Noya, and Tanaka began to talk through the mundane topics that were required during a catch up conversation. He mumbled a response occasionally when something was addressed to him, but otherwise stayed out of it.

 

He could feel Hinata watching him hard from across the table even though the redhead was participating in the conversation. Kageyama kept his gaze focused on the wall between Tanaka and Hinata’s shoulders, doing his best to appear to be paying attention without really looking at anyone.

 

He snuck glances over at Hinata occasionally only when he felt the other man’s stare lighten for a moment. The only thing the glances told him was that Hinata was being an idiot and not paying attention to how many times Tanaka was pouring him refills.

 

“Kageyama!” Nishinoya slapped him on the shoulder suddenly, making him jump and whack a knee the table leg. Tanaka and Suga moved quickly to steady it before anything could spill, and Kageyama turned his attention over his shoulder to shoot Noya a dirty look.

 

“Sorry sorry, I thought you were paying more attention to me!” Noya slapped his shoulder again a few times, then gave it a little shake. “Why aren’t you drinking with the rest of us? Tanaka’s putting out for the good stuff tonight.”

 

“That’s not what we--” Tanaka made a pained noise and Nishinoya did nothing to hide the fact that he had kicked him under the table. Instead Nishinoya stretched his mouth slowly into a grin that just dared Kageyama to try to argue with him about how he had planned out their night again.

 

Noya continued grinning at Kageyama until Kageyama picked up his beer glass and took a slow sip that was as drawn out and yet as tiny as he could manage.

 

Across the table, Hinata took a long not at all fake gulp almost in time with Kageyama’s and Kageyama could still feel Hinata’s eyes on him.

 

Kageyama swallowed hard and put the cup back down, forcing himself to smile at Nishinoya. He didn’t like beer anymore than he had the first time he had tried it back when he was moving out of the crummy college apartment he had been sharing with Hinata.

 

His eyes swiveled slowly across the table to Hinata again and locked on Hinata for a moment as the other man turned his attention downwards to stare at his nearly empty mug.

 

He didn’t move his eyes away fast enough as Hinata’s snapped back up. They stared across the table at each other; the conversation between Noya and Tanaka and Suga dropped to a low buzz in the background as all of Kageyama’s senses seemed to focus solely on Hinata and how he was swaying slightly in his seat.

 

Hinata jumped up suddenly, reaching across the table to smack the empty place in front of Kageyama. He knocked over his beer and barely avoided taking Kageyama’s down as he flailed about. Before he could do any more damage though, Suga was righting the glass and putting a napkin over the tiny puddle on the table and pushing gently on his shoulder to make him sit heavily back in his seat.

 

“Jeez Shouyo, what was that about? See a bug trying to get at Kageyama’s beer?” Nishinoya laughed and despite the bleary look Hinata had had on his face a moment before, he zeroed in on Kageyama’s face and his eyes sharpened suddenly.

 

“You!”

 

“...me?” Kageyama subtly pushed his chair a few inches farther away from the table in case Hinata decided to attempt to jump at him again.

 

“You stopped responding to my texts!” Hinata announced loudly enough for the tables around them to all quiet their conversations and turn curious glances in their direction.

 

“I don’t know what--”

 

“Yes you do!” Hinata leaned forward and his swaying stopped as he pressed against the edge of the table to steady himself. Even though he wasn’t too much closer Kageyama was suddenly hyperaware of just how flushed his cheeks were. “You disappeared to join the pros and left me all alone! And then you stopped texting me even though I kept texting you. I didn’t understand at all, and you were gone and--and Kageyama I thought...I thought we were...!”

 

Were those--tears? Hinata gave a loud sniffle which confirmed Kageyama’s fears that he was about to have to somehow console a grown man who was going to start bawling in the middle of a bar.

 

“Hey!” Tanaka stood suddenly and leaned over to throw an arm around Hinata’s shoulder. The redhead jumped and looked over in surprise, his apparent crying fit interrupted. “Hinata, I think you’ve had quite enough, maybe it’s time to go home yeah?”

 

Hinata gave another long sniff and nodded slowly. “Y-yeah.” He stood slowly and pushed his chair back, but sat back down in it a moment later.

 

He looked like he wanted to start crying again. “...senpai? I don’t think I can get home on my own.”

 

Hinata turned his watery brown eyes towards Tanaka and more than anything else Kageyama thought suddenly that he looked like the energetic high schooler Kageyama used to know more than than an adult old enough to go to a bar and drink.

 

Tanaka signed loudly and looked over at Kageyama. “It’s time for you to take responsibility for the mess you’ve created.”

 

“Me?” Kageyama spluttered, looking quickly between Hinata and Tanaka. “How was this _my_ fault?”

 

Tanaka rolled his eyes and nodded at Hinata. “Maybe if you weren’t baiting him all night--”

 

“--maybe if you didn’t keep _buying him refills_ \--!”

 

The gentle sound of a utensil tapping the side of a glass interrupted them and everyone looked down at the end of the table at Suga who was smiling serenely at them as he patted Hinata’s hand.

 

“Children, children, now isn’t the time to be throwing blame around.” Suga’s expression was gentle but he radiated danger so much than even the people seated at the table behind him were subtly trying to scoot their chairs further away.

 

Suga pulled his hand away from Hinata’s in order to turn more fully towards Kageyama. “Kageyama, since I believe the very root of this issue is your fault you will be taking Hinata home. We’ll cover your food expenses for the night in return--”

 

Suga held up a hand that silenced all three of the protesting squawks almost before they had a chance to start. “Don’t argue with me. Just trust your senpai, okay?”

 

The danger around Suga dissipated immediately as he beamed down the table at them and Kageyama felt his heart began to melt a little.

 

Hinata gave a loud sniffle and reached over to poke Suga on the shoulder. “S-suga-saaaaan. I dun want Kageyama to take me home.”

 

Suga reached over and patted Hinata on the shoulder gently in return. “I understand Hinata-kun, but he’s the most likely to get you home and into bed safely. Do you really want Tanaka to bring you home?”

 

Tanaka started to protest but the suspicious look Hinata managed to turn on him despite being drunk spoke volumes as to what may have occurred in the past when Tanaka was given that duty.

 

Kageyama sighed loudly and pushed away from the table before Tanaka could attempt to protest again. Hinata whipped his head around to look but before he had the chance to protest either Kageyama grabbed his arm and hoisted him up, settling his arm and most of his body weight across his shoulders.

 

Suga was beaming and waving at them as Kageyama hauled Hinata out of the bar. He could see Tanaka and Nishinoya hunched together conspiratorially at their end of the table and he just knew he should be worried about what was passing between them.

 

He sighed again and moved out of the doorway so other patrons could enter and leave.

 

“Where’s your house?”

 

Hinata shook his head slowly and tried unsuccessfully to pull away from Kageyama.

 

Kageyama snorted and held on. “Hinata, I have to take you home. Where. Is. Your. House.” He had to strain to make out the words he finally got Hinata to mumble in response, and after asking him to repeat them twice he thought he had an apartment complex and number that wasn’t too far away.

 

Hinata shook off his help at first but after taking only five wobbly steps and managing to nearly fall flat on his face at the last one Kageyama threw Hinata’s arm over his shoulder and started walking him along.

 

That didn’t last very long either, as Kageyama soon found himself physically dragging Hinata with absolutely no help from the other man. His levels of irritation grew with every step he had to hoist all of Hinata’s weight onto his shoulder just to move another foot forward.

 

“You know what? Enough is enough!” Kageyama threw Hinata’s arm off causing Hinata to stumble into a nearby light pole. Hinata threw his arms around it in a clear attempt to keep his balance and was actually somewhat successful at the expense of any dignity he might have had left.

 

Kageyama took a moment to breath deeply and roll his eyes at the people passing by who were shooting the two of them looks varying from concerned to annoyed.

 

Hinata was staring at him too, looking lost and confused even as Kageyama stepped closer and turned around to squat down.

 

He heard a squawk and clank from behind him indicating that Hinata had attempted to flail his arms and had probably instead just hit something on the light pole.

 

“Come on, I don’t have all night. The fastest way for me to get you home is to carry you and you can bet every dollar we both have I’m not carrying you in front of my body.”

 

Kageyama expected a drunken argument. He didn’t expect Hinata to flop bonelessly onto his back a moment later. At least he was mostly in the right position and Kageyama only had to rearrange his legs a little in order to stand and start walking down the sidewalk again.

 

The walking was slower with Hinata on his back than if Hinata had just been willing to walk himself, but all things considered it didn’t take too long to get to Hinata’s apartment complex. Hinata even helped a little bit by quietly mumbling instructions into the back of Kageyama’s neck every so often. Hinata was pressed so close to Kageyama that his warm breath ruffled his hair every time he breathed and Kageyama probably was imagining it but he swore he could feel lips moving against his neck every now and again. It was making the pit of his stomach feel a little queasy but in the good way he used to get at the end of high school when Hinata would smile at him sometimes.

 

Kageyama shook his head violently to get those sort of thoughts out of his head. He huffed out an annoyed breath and started up the three flights of stairs to the top floor because of course Hinata couldn’t have chosen to live somewhere with an elevator.

 

At least Hinata’s apartment was at the end of the hall and he didn’t need to cart him all the way down to the other end as well.

 

“Hey. We’re at your place. Keys.” Kageyama shook his back a few times to try to make sure Hinata was awake enough to get himself into his apartment. He felt Hinata’s head move away from his neck and took that as a sign that he was.

 

Kageyama knelt down to let him off but instead of letting go and seeing himself off for the night Hinata tightened his arms around Kageyama’s neck. Kageyama reached up to try and remove him but Hinata just held tighter, leaving the two of them squatting awkwardly together in front of Hinata’s door in a stalemate.

 

Kageyama was considering using his superior height to physically shake Hinata off of his body and run while he was still drunkenly trying to regain his wits when Hinata’s arms loosened.

 

“I missed you Kageyama,” Hinata said as he slid slowly backwards and stumbled to his feet.

 

Kageyama was frozen for a moment as he processed those words while Hinata fumbled through finding his keys and unlocking his door.

 

He was halfway into his apartment and clearly about to shut the door without another word when Kageyama’s brain finally rebooted and he jumped up and shoved himself against the door.

 

“What the hell does that mean?” He registered a moment later that he had put himself very close to Hinata’s face, closer than he should have, but he wasn’t about to move without getting an answer.

 

Hinata sighed and pushed harder on the door. “I missed you. I kept texting you and you stopped talking to me. You just completely dropped me from you life and went off to be a pro and left me behind. I thought I had gotten over it but then you waltzed back in here with no warning yesterday and now look at me!” Hinata made a noise that sounded like he was trying to laugh but sounded more like he was about to start crying again. “I’m so drunk I couldn’t walk myself home because I can’t keep my mind straight since you got here. I haven’t been this drunk since the night you left--” Hinata’s eyes widened suddenly and he cut himself off before he could go any further with his rambling.

 

Using strength Kageyama didn’t expect him to have, he shoved the door closed. Kageyama stared at the door as he heard the lock clicking into place.

  
He gave a frustrated growl, kicked the door once (in the corner so if he did any damage it wouldn’t be _too_ obvious) and then turned and stalked back down the stairs again so he could go home for the night.

 


	4. Chapter 3

“So uh, nice shades.” Kageyama perked up when he heard Tanaka speak behind him as he was leading the kids through their warm up. He glanced backwards for a second to see Hinata looking like he had been dragged the entire way to the school building, hair wilder than usual and sunglasses haphazardly shoved onto his nose. He hadn’t heard Hinata come into the gym, but the way the man looked he definitely was trying to make as little excessive noise as possible this morning.

 

Kageyama turned back to the kids as they switched exercises and during the momentary pause between sets he could hear Tanaka snickering.

 

“Shut up, this is your fault.” Kageyama heard Hinata groan following that statement.

 

“Oh, I don’t think so. I think whoever’s fault this is probably has a name starting with an H. Or hmm. Maybe it was a K? Either way it definitely wasn’t a T--”

 

“Okay fine!” Hinata groaned again. “I really can’t argue with you today. You do practice with Kageyama and Nishinoya, I’m going to go sit somewhere far away and work on plays for the new season.”

 

Tanaka snorted again. “Yeah yeah, go drink lots of water while you’re at it. We’ve got earplugs in the first aid kit if you need them too.” Kageyama heard Tanaka whistled a few tuneless notes followed by a significant sounding pause. “You coming to practice tonight?”

 

Nishinoya allowed the kids to start winding the routine down and Kageyama glanced back again. Hinata was shuffling slowly away from Tanaka and making some sort of senseless gesture with his arms. “As long as I’ve made an improvement from want to die to somewhat functional, I’ll be there.”

 

Tanaka’s laughter echoed around the gym Kageyama suddenly realized that the warmup had ended he had been surrounded by members of the girls team while he was too busy watching Hinata. They were all staring worriedly up at him.

 

“Uh..?” Kageyama started to panic because they were all just looking at him without saying anything and they weren’t even pretending like they were going to go see their actual coach for instructions like they were supposed to after the warmup ended. Unless they somehow thought in their usual coach’s absence he was going to be taking Hinata’s place?

 

“Kageyama-san, is Hinata-sensei okay?” one of the girls finally asked.

 

That one question let loose the rest of the stream of worries and suddenly he had questions coming from all around, too many for him to be able to answer or even keep straight in his head.

 

“Well uh. We went for dr--dinner last night.” Kageyama internally cursed and was glad he managed to catch himself. He wasn’t technically supposed to tell a bunch of high schoolers that their coaches had gone out drinking, he didn’t think. “I think something that id--Hinata-sensei ate might not have agreed with him. I had to help him get home and he wasn’t looking too well by the time we got there.”

 

The talking from the girls cut off abruptly and they were all staring at him again, this time in a very different manner.

 

“You helped nii-chan home?” Natsu was suddenly latched onto his arm and was grinning up at him. Kageyama didn’t try to be subtle as he attempted to shake her off. “Give me details!”

 

“What.” Kageyama started to shake his arm harder but he wouldn’t budge. “I don’t know what you’re suggesting but it was just me helping someone home like any decent person would. Because I am a good person.”

 

Natsu’s grin started to droop and soon she was frowning up at him. “Tobi-niichan don’t you know you that Hinata-niichan has the biggest--”

 

A curly haired girl suddenly slapped a hand over Natsu’s mouth and started pulling her away, finally freeing Kageyama’s arm from her deathgrip. “Natsu-chan you can’t just _tell him_.”

 

Natsu shook her head free. “But--”

 

“Boys are stupid, we’ve established that.”

 

“Hey--” Kageyama went to take a step towards them but suddenly found that the entire group was no longer surrounding him and were actually moving away to join the boys’ group.

 

“Sorry Kageyama-san. We have very important things to talk about. Over there. With Tanaka-sensei. Practice things, you know,” the curly haired girl called as she dragged Natsu away. Natsu just looked resigned and still curious but waved at he when she caught him looking.

 

Kageyama just scowled at all of them and went to join Tanaka and Nishinoya where they looked like they were preparing to get the real practice started.

 

*

 

“I can’t believe you convinced me to do this.”

 

Tanaka snorted as he threw open the door to the local recreation center’s gym. “Stop acting like I dragged you out drinking like Noya did. It’s just the men’s neighborhood association and you already know most of the people in it.”

 

Kageyama stopped to close the door behind them and followed Tanaka past the front desk and into one of the open gym doors. He paused just inside it to take in the scene. Tanaka hadn’t been wrong, the association wasn’t much larger than it had been before so he recognized more than a few of the faces from his high school days.

 

“Kageyama-kun, over here!” Kageyama turned and saw Suga waving at him from the other side of the gym. Tanaka was standing next to him, smiling widely and Daichi was on his other side, looking extremely proud for some reason.

 

Kageyama walked over slowly and was given a warm pat on the back by both Suga and Daichi. Tanaka just elbowed him in the side and grinned when Kageyama scowled at him.

 

“We’re glad you could make it Kageyama.” Daichi smiled warmly at him and then pointed a thumb across the gym at the older members. “We all agreed that you and Noya would probably like to get some real games in during this week so we’ll be playing a few matches against the older members.”

 

Suga shook his head slowly. “At least for the first game. I think Ukai-san and Shimada-san and Takinoue-san wanted to play another game on the same team as you.”

 

“I’m not saying we can’t do that.” Daichi suddenly leaned in, looking conspiratorily. “We have a bet with them about the first game. The losers have to treat the winners to barbeque.”

 

Kageyama raised an eyebrow slowly. “And they think they can win against two pros..?”

 

Daichi laughed. “They said something about knowing all your quirks since they helped so much during high school. I don’t think it’ll be an issue, because their players and ours are evenly matched without factoring in you guys.”

 

Nishinoya dashed into the gym and over to where they were standing. He dropped an armful of water bottles and sports drinks onto the ground and grinned like an overexcited puppy. “That should be enough to get all of us through the game. Are Shouyou and Asahi still not here yet?”

 

Tanaka snorted. “We all know why Hinata is running late, although last I heard he was still planning on coming.”

 

Suga shook his head and reached across to punch Tanaka on the arm. “Don’t joke about that, it was partially your fault. And I think Asahi said he might have to bring--”

 

“Hey kiddos, we’re starting with you guys short handed if your other players don’t show up soon!”

 

Kageyama looked across the gym to where the older players were doing stretches. Ukai was clearly the one who yelled at them, and he was recognizable because he still had the same hairstyle as he did before, except in what appeared to be his natural color. Shimada’s dark hair had a few lighter streaks in it and Takinoue had a few lines on his face that hadn’t been here before. It hadn’t really hit Kageyama how long it had been since he last saw everyone until he saw his old teachers and how they had aged in the interim.

 

Hinata trudged into the gym a moment later, looking less like death warmed over than he did in the morning. He didn’t have the sunglasses on anymore so Kageyama could see the purplish splotches under his eyes that screamed he hadn’t slept well the night before.

 

He perked up slightly as he got closer and we waved at the group without saying anything and then leaned down to swipe one of the drinks Nishinoya had just brought. He downed half of it quickly and looked like he was feeling a little better when he capped it again. “Hey sorry, I took Natsu home tonight and mom kept me up trying to tell me about the neighborhood gossip and worrying about me.”

 

Suga shook his head and smiled gently. “It’s alright, you still beat Asahi here. Are you feeling better now?”

 

Hinata shrugged. “My head isn’t pounding anymore and I really need to sleep but I didn’t want to miss practice this week. Plus uh--” Hinata wasn’t subtle when he looked over at Kageyama. “I heard Noya-san was going to come play and I couldn’t miss that chance.”

 

“One more minute--”

 

“Sorry sorry, we’re here!” Asahi dashed into the gym with a little brown haired girl on his back. She grinned and waved at everyone as he ran past. All of the older team members waved back.

 

Kageyama was staring and out of the corner of his eye he could see Nishinoya’s mouth had dropped open as he stared in shock.

 

Asahi slowed halfway over to them and the girl jumped off. He continued over to join the circle as she trotted over to grab a stray volleyball and start bouncing it against the ground.

 

Asahi stopped just at the fringes of the circle and leaned down to catch his breath. When he stood back up he smiled apologetically and pulled the band from his hair to fix it so the strands that had escaped weren’t falling in his eyes. “Sorry, dad was late picking her up from her school and he had to run errands on the way home but I promised I would watch her tonight--”

 

That seemed to snap Nishinoya out of his stupor and he dashed forward to grab Asahi’s shirt collar and pull his face down to his eye level. “Wait. Stop. Who is, what, I mean…”

 

Asahi looked confused  and gently pulled away from Noya’s hand. He shot a concerned look at Daichi and Suga before looking back down at Noya. “She’s my sister’s kid. Sis sort of dumped her with mom and dad to go pursue some sort of business opportunity up north. I help out and watch her when I can. I thought I told you about her when she first came to live with us a few months ago?”

 

Suga snorted. “He’s more than half raising her. She adores him.”

 

They all turned and watched her as she threw a ball at the wall and then chased it as it bounced across the gym.

 

“She’s cute,” Noya offered as he pulled his eyes away. “She looks like you.”

 

Asahi laughed quietly and rubbed a hand over his head. “Well, so does my sister…” He shrugged slowly. “You should come over and meet her sometime. I’ll introduce you tonight obviously but she might not remember. Plus mom and dad heard you were in town and they wanted to see you too.”

 

Nishinoya perked up immediately. “Yeah of course, just tell me when they want me to come over…”

 

Kageyama tuned them out at that point and looked over at Hinata who was still staring absently across the gym. “Hey.”

 

Hinata jumped and turned, looking panicked for a moment that Kageyama was speaking to him. “...are you going to be okay?”

 

Hinata stared at him and shook his head slowly. “Right now I am, but I might not make it through more than two sets.” Hinata started tapping a foot quickly on the ground. “I usually would have skipped but since you and Noya-san were coming to play with us I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I just couldn’t.” Hinata grinned at him and Kageyama found himself grinning back for just a moment before he and Hinata were suddenly enveloped in a huddle.

 

“Game’s starting in just a minute I wanted to talk basic strategy. We’ve got one extra team member on our side so we’ll be rotating someone out every couple of points to keep play time fair. Try to keep track of the order and your turn. Suga, Kageyama, I’ll leave it between you two about who’s setting for which plays. Noya, play defense when you can. That’s all I’ve got guys, let’s go win ourselves some barbeque!” The team  let out a cheer the likes of which could only be inspired by the promise of a free meal.

 

“Ah wait, one more thing,” Daichi added as they were starting to head to the court. “Hinata, just for tonight you don’t need to hold back. You call for the ball as many times as you want, okay?”

 

Hinata’s face lit up and he started bouncing in place. You almost couldn’t tell that he had spent most of the day looking like he wanted to pass out on nearly every horizontal surface. “Yeah? Awesome. Let me sit out first then, I need to do some extra stretching if I’m going to jump that much and not regret it tomorrow.”

 

Hinata darted off to the side of the court and Kageyama watched for a moment as he started limbering up (and how was he even that flexible with knees that didn’t work right all the time??) before following the rest of his temporary team into the court to duke it out over positions.

 

What followed, once they finally managed to get started, was possibly one of the most fun games Kageyama had ever gotten to play in his entire volleyball career.

 

He loved volleyball, and anybody who ever knew him knew that. He wouldn’t have been kept playing as long as he did, work as hard as he did to make it onto the pro team, if he didn’t love volleyball. But he knew that ever since he had joined his middle school team everything that he did was working towards the goal of winning. Winning the tournament or winning a setter’s award or trying to get into high school and then a college scholarship and then the pros. He had constantly been playing volleyball to improve and pass the next milestone and as much as he enjoyed the effort and work, it had never really been this kind of fun.

 

Playing a game with the friends he hadn’t seen in years, the teachers he had long ago surpassed, with absolutely nothing riding on the game except for the price of a dinner, that was somehow freeing. It was okay to set not quite right or try out something new he had been thinking about. It was suddenly okay to use the super quick set he had never quite be able to keep up to speed since leaving high school, and no matter what he said about his knees Hinata called for it and hit it every single time it came to him.

 

It was fun and it was making Kageyama remember what had made him fall so deeply in love with volleyball so long ago.

 

Everyone was so busy trying to win dinner and keep the game going that nobody noticed the older man with the camera creep into the gym and take a few pictures before casually walking out again.

 


	5. Chapter 4

Kageyama threw the gym door open and looked around frantically until he spotted Hinata. All of the volleyball club members were clustered around him and they had clearly all been talking to him before Kageyama’s noise interrupted. Now they were all staring across the gym at  him, eyes wide.

 

Hinata looked like he was about to burst out laughing.

 

Kageyama kicked the door shut behind him and made his way slowly across the gym. He could feel himself starting to crumple the newspaper he had definitely overpaid for as he got closer to Hinata.

 

The children parted automatically when he was close enough, allowing to approach Hinata without bumping into anybody.

 

Kageyama stopped a few feet away from Hinata and shoved the newspaper towards him. Kageyama could feel himself blushing and he didn’t want to be embarrassed over this but being embarrassed was making him even more flustered and making the blushing worse. He stared down at a scuff mark on Hinata’s shoes and wished nobody could see how red he was.

 

“I’m so sorry,” he gritted out as he felt Hinata take the newspaper from him.

 

Hinata really did laugh a few moments later and Kageyama had to grit his teeth to keep from groaning because of course he would find it amusing.

 

“Is this why all of you were suddenly so interested in my high school volleyball career this morning?”

 

Kageyama was jostled out of the way as all the kids pressed in close again, trying to ask Hinata twenty questions all at the same time.

 

“Alright, alright, we really need to get practice started. But how about this--if I don’t hear any complaining during morning practice Kageyama and I will answer all the questions you have during the lunch break.”

 

The resounding cheer from the kids completely overwhelmed Kageyama’s protest. Hinata grinned over their heads at Kageyama who shot a playful scowl back at him, and quickly turned away when he realized what he had done.

 

Practice was almost a blur after that and it went amazingly smoothly with the kids jumping to do anything and everything Hinata asked of them, even after they got their lunchtime Q&A. Kageyama’s head was spinning as he watched all of them file out of the gym after practice, waving at the teachers and roughhousing with each other as they split off into smaller groups to walk home.

 

“Hey.” Kageyama shuffled in place without really moving anywhere. “Can we...talk?”

 

Kageyama watched out of the corner of his eye as Hinata’s hand fell slowly to his side. The redhead stood without moving for a few moments, just watching the door. “Sure. Want to walk to the park?”

 

Kageyama nodded slowly. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

 

“Great.” Hinata turned and dashed across the gym to where Tanaka and Nishinoya were playing dodgeball instead of putting away the stray balls the kids had “accidentally” forgotten to clean up. Kageyama watched Hinata pass off a keyring and get a high five from Nishinoya before he jogged back. “You ready to go?”

 

Kageyama hoisted his bag over his shoulder and nodded.

 

They walked slowly to the park over the old familiar route. Kageyama spent the time trying to think of exactly what he wanted to say to Hinata, and Hinata for the most part didn’t say anything except for occasionally pointing out where one of the old shops on the route had been changed out for something new.

 

When they got to the park they didn’t need to say anything to each other to know which direction to head in. They simultaneously listed to the right, walking slowly past the fountain and toward the jungle gym. This time of the day there were plenty of kids climbing around on it so they found an empty bench and settled down.

 

Kageyama and Hinata sat quietly and watched them for a few moments before Kageyama decided he might have been overthinking things.

 

“I really am sorry.”

 

Hinata snorted immediately. “I--really? You wanted to come out here and did this whole dramatic buildup thing just to tell me you’re sorry for a gossip magazine headline?” Hinata leaned over to dig into his bag and came back up with a slightly crumpled newspaper. He smoothed it out across his lap so they could both read the headline “ _Kageyama Tobio spotted at local gym with old teammates--is this the future of men’s pro volleyball?_ ” Below the headline was a fantastic picture of Hinata that had been taken mid-spike. Kageyama knew professional sports photographers who couldn’t take a picture that good.

 

Kageyama pulled his eyes away from the picture of the newspaper cover and stared resolutely at a rock on the ground. “I get that you think it’s funny, but some people find it invasive to suddenly end up in the news because they were seen with someone famous.”

 

Kageyama had a teammate whose new girlfriend he had gone out with for the night had ended up on the front of a gossip magazine the next morning. She had been horrified and had immediately cut off contact with him, and when Kageyama had seen Hinata’s picture that morning he had panicked and expected the same reaction after he had just come to terms with the fact that he probably wanted Hinata back in his life again.

 

Hinata had fallen silent beside him and Kageyama glanced to the side to see Hinata looking at him with the same intensely focused expression he used to have when he entered his super concentration state during volleyball games. Kageyama turned more fully to meet his eyes and they both just stared at each other for a few quiet seconds.

 

Hinata broke the connection first and turned to look down at the newspaper again. “Did you know that back in high school, before I found out about my knees, this was one of my big dreams? We used to say we were going to make the pro team together and I always like to imagine us on the cover of a magazine together looking awesome like this.”

 

Hinata’s hands crumpled the newspaper slightly. “Even if you don’t know it, and even if it’s not a real sports magazine, you made my dream come true today because I’m on the cover of a newspaper playing volleyball with you.”

 

Hinata fell silent again and Kageyama began to panic a moment later when he heard a quiet sniffle and watched Hinata lift a hand to rub at his eyes.

 

Hinata started to say something but Kageyama jumped up and quickly waved a hand at him. “I’ll just--wait a second I’ll be right back.” He dashed away before Hinata could say anything else, probably leaving him very confused. Hopefully just as confused and slightly panicked as Kageyama was by seeing Hinata cry in front of him.

 

He trotted out of the nearby konbini a minute later and jogged back to where Hinata was still sitting. He wasn’t crying anymore by his nose and eyes were a very telltale red that gave him away.

 

Kageyama shoved a handful of paper napkins in his face and sat heavily back down on the bench beside Hinata, placing a warm paper bag on the bench between them. He nudged it closer while Hinata looked in confusion at the napkins. “Here. Idiot.”

 

Hinata grabbed the bag and opened the top to peer inside. Kageyama heard a tiny intake of breath. “Are these…?”

 

“They’re just meat buns,” Kageyama grumbled as Hinata pulled one out and shoved it in his mouth. The bag was in his face a second later. Hinata wiggled it slightly as Kageyama pulled his face back to avoid being poked in the eye with greasy paper. “C’mon Kageyama you take one too. It’ll be just like old times.”

 

They did smell good, Kageyama admitted to himself. Hinata cheered (like and idiot) when he reached into the bag and pulled one out, and quickly snatched it back afterwards so he could eat another. Kageyama took a bite and chewed slowly because technically he wasn’t supposed to eat these anymore so he was going to savor it if he was going to break his diet rules.

 

Hinata was licking his fingers clean and ignoring the napkins Kageyama and gotten him as Kageyama was finishing.

 

“You know,” he said conversationally as he tossed the crumpled empty bag into the trash bin nearby. “I hated you for a while. I was so angry at you for going off to play volleyball without me, and angry at coach for not stopping me from playing in a way that resulted in me injuring myself, and angry at myself for not being able to do anything to fix it. After I while I was just so angry that I hated everything. And you just cutting off communication it just made it worse. You know who got me out of it? Natsu.”

 

Kageyama grabbed a napkin and wiped his fingers slowly.

 

“Natsu decided she wanted to start playing volleyball just like her big brother. She asked me to teach her and didn’t stop asking until I finally said yes. And at first she wanted to play just like me and I let her until I watched her start picking up all the bad habits that ended up hurting me. And then I had to figure out how she could play with my style but not in a way that would destroy her in the long run.”

 

Hinata turned to look at Kageyama and his eyes were watery but he didn’t look like he was going to start crying again. He looked strangely happy despite the very serious conversation they were having. “She’s really good Kageyama, good enough to make it to the pros after she graduates. And she’s the one who showed me that I could keep playing volleyball and help make sure nobody else from Karasuno ends up like I did.”

 

Hinata smiled at him and much like when they were in high school together the power of it was so infectious that Kageyama felt himself instinctively smiling back.

 

He heard a crumpling noise and ended up watching as Hinata balled up the newspaper that was still on his lap and tossed it away towards a recycling bin. “So all of that aside I got my wish but I wouldn’t change anything that helped me to end up where I am today. And I know that whatever I did that night you left made you angry enough to pretend I totally didn’t exist for a couple of years, but I hope that maybe, after this, we can be friends again?”

 

Kageyama stared at the newspaper, where it was laying on the ground having missed the recycling bin by a few feet. “Do you actually remember anything about that night, Hinata?”

 

Kageyama could see Hinata kick his feet out and then jam his heels against the sidewalk. He didn’t reply right away.

 

Kageyama turned to watch at the newspaper ball again. He finally got up to throw it away and when he was turning to come back he noticed Hinata watching him as he walked back and sat down.

 

“I don’t really, I just remember certain things, like having dinner and drinking with you. After that it’s sort of fuzzy but I remember hugging and I remember the door shutting. We had a conversation but I don’t know what you said or what I said.” Hinata shrugged. “I woke up sick and feeling like an idiot for more than just getting drunk like I did, but I don’t know why.”

 

Hinata’s voice cracked on the last word and Kageyama turned to look at him again. From the expression on his face it was clear he was lying. He definitely remembered more than he admitted but how much more and exactly what, Kageyama couldn’t say.

 

It didn’t really matter because Hinata’s distress was tugging at Kageyama’s heartstrings and firmly reminding him that his unresolved feelings toward Hinata that he had tried to put behind him had never _really_ gone away.

 

Actually getting to reconnect with him during the week, seeing him so happy (when he wasn’t just as distraught and confused over Kageyama suddenly being back as Kageyama was over Hinata being thrust into his life after such a long absence) was giving Kageyama hope that there might be something in their future. A certain something he had wanted before but had been too prideful and hurt over a misunderstanding to try for again.

 

“Hey.” Kageyama’s voice was quiet and he told himself it was just so he didn’t shock Hinata and not because of a lump in the back of his throat. He coughed a few times and tried again. “Hey, maybe we should just go back. Reset things and pretend that the last few years of--” _me ignoring you_ , “--us not talking didn’t happen. I’m not an idiot teenager anymore and I know we can’t just change things overnight, but I think we can try and be friends--” _more than friends, maybe_ , “--and get back to there eventually.”

 

Hinata had started rapidly even before Kageyama had finished speaking, and his grin was radiant and contagious enough that Kageyama found himself smiling back without meaning to.

 

“I want to try Kageyama! I want--how many times do you need me to say it before you understand? I _missed_ you, you know that? It’s been good but not the same without you around and I’m definitely not going to let you run away this time.” Hinata thrust a hand between them. “Shake on it and promise me.”

  
Kageyama grabbed his hand and shook it, letting the warmth from Hinata’s palm leech into his own colder hand for a moment longer than was actually necessary.

 

Hinata pulled his hand back and jumped up. “Ha! You’re going to try harder to get rid of me this time! Now give me your phone number again so I can make sure it’s definitely right!”

  
With a wry smile Kageyama pulled his phone out of his pocket and offered it to Hinata. With luck he wouldn’t be trying to get rid of the other man soon, or ever again. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry that's all for now! I hope to have the last chapter and the epilogue written and posted in the next week or two. 
> 
> Thanks for stopping by and reading!


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay everyone! Here's the last chapter with epilogue to follow shortly

Chapter 5

 

Kageyama looked over the spread of clothing on his hotel bed and wished once again that he had packed something other than t-shirts and gym shorts. He had woken up with the bright idea that before today was over he was going to ask Hinata to consider the idea of not _just_ being friends but maybe actually taking a step onward to dating. He wanted today to be everything his previous attempt at that question hadn’t been--but all he had to wear were ratty old t-shirts and gym shorts.

 

“Kageyama we’re going to be late if you keep this up! Just choose something and let's get going.” Despite his words Nishinoya was half dressed and still lying in bed, tossing a volleyball he had stolen from the gym up at the ceiling. “The kids already think the sun shines out of your ass, you don’t need to impress them anymore. Unless…” Nishinoya sat up suddenly and the ball fell onto his head and bounced away across the room.

 

Any other time Kageyama might have laughed at how it flattened half of his carefully primped spikes, but the look on Nishinoya’s face screamed danger and Kageyama automatically scowled at him in response.

 

“I’m just trying to look nice for our last day with them,” he answered hurriedly and grabbed a pair of shorts at random. He took the shirt that he thought smelled the least and got changed quickly.

 

Somehow Nishinoya was ready to go at the same time he was, even though Kageyama hadn’t seen him move from the end of the bed. He was smiling up at Kageyama like he thought he knew something.

 

“I’m leaving.” Kageyama grabbed his bag and pulled the room door open. He power walked himself down the hall, trying to get as far ahead of Nishinoya as he could to avoid the interrogation he could feel coming.

 

Noya caught up to him as he was settling down at the hotel entrance to put his shoes back on. As he opened his mouth to speak, Kageyama stood up and announced, “I think I’ll jog to the school today,” and took off without listening for a response.

 

“I’ll get answers out of you one way or another Kageyama!” he heard Nishinoya call after him. Kageyama just rolled his eyes and kept going.

 

It was actually a pleasant morning for a run, and Noya seemed to agree as he caught up halfway to the school, falling into pace beside Kageyama without a word. They jogged quietly  next to each other all the way to the gym, only breaking  the silence occasionally to murmur directions or confirm a turn.

 

When they arrived they stopped outside the door and took a few moments to catch their breaths.

 

“Kageyama--”

 

“Noya-san, if I tell you that you’ll find out what you want to know soon enough will you stop trying to ask me about it?”

 

Nishinoya was in his face a second later, his grin slowly stretching wider and wider. “Do you really mean that?”

 

Kageyama let out a slow sigh and leaned back to his face wasn’t so close. “Yeah, I guess I do.” He reached around Nishinoya to open the door before either of them could continue the conversation, and then stepped inside.

 

Tanaka waved at them from the other side of the gym. Hinata was already on the gym floor going through stretches with the girls. The boys team was nowhere to be seen meaning they must have been out running laps.

 

“Hey.” Tanaka nodded at Hinata when they had put their bags against the wall and joined him where he was watching. “He’s been in a really good mood all day. I had to send the boys running because they needed a break from his enthusiasm. He’s almost to the point where I expect him to start using nonsense words like he did during school.”

 

Kageyama watched in silence for a moment. “The girls don’t seem to mind it too much.”

 

“That’s because Natsu-chan is on their team and that’s basically like having a high school Hinata around.”

 

“Alright, go take a water break. It looks like Noya and Kageyama are here and if you want them to play a game against you, you need to get through your basic drills first.”

 

The girls all stood and made their way slowly to the bench where their drinks and snacks were waiting for them.

 

Hinata came to join the coach’s group instead. “Hey.”

 

Kageyama opened his mouth to reply but nothing came out. Instead he and Hinata ended up just staring at each other until Kageyama finally managed to tear his eyes away. He felt himself blushing and he quickly lifted an arm to wipe across his face while pretending to instead to be wiping nonexistent sweat.

 

“What--” Tanaka started but quickly cut off with a sharp exhale and an “oof.”

 

Kageyama looked up to see Hinata staring hard down at his shoes, also blushing.

 

“So Hinata!” Nishinoya said loudly enough that even the girls on the other side of the gym got quieter because they were clearly listening in. “You said something about playing games against us?”

 

“Ah yeah!” Hinata answered just as loudly. “So the girls wanted to know if you guys would be willing to play two on three games against them...”

 

And just like that the short moment between them was broken. Not that Kageyama wanted that to be a moment. He did need to talk to Hinata but he didn’t want it to happen with Noya and Tanaka eagerly listening in.

 

That conversation was interrupted by the boys coming back, which quickly turned into drills where all of the coaches were observing and correcting players when they needed to. Drills ended at noon when Tanaka and Hinata surprised the players by getting bentos delivered for lunch. After lunch the girls were insistent that they begin their games against the pro players immediately, and as soon as the boys saw what was going on they demanded to be able to play against Kageyama and Nishinoya too. That turned into Kageyama and Noya playing against each other with the high schoolers filling out the rest of the positions on the teams.

 

Before he realized it it was an hour past when their practice was supposed to have ended and Hinata and Tanaka were waving the kids away to get changed and go home, letting them out of cleaning up as a special present for their last day of training camp.

 

Noya and Kageyama of course stayed to help clean up as the kids roughhoused their way to the club house to get changed.

 

The moment Kageyama had been waiting for came just a few minutes later. He was reaching to pick up a ball and as he grabbed hold of it another hand closed on top of his. He looked up to see Hinata staring at him, the pressure on his hand changing intermittently as if Hinata knew he should let go but also didn’t quite want to.

 

“Let’s go out?” Kageyama blurted, throwing out the words that had been running through his brain all day.

 

Hinata didn’t reply but his face started slowly turning the color of a tomato indicating that he heard and understood fully what Kageyama was asking. However, despite his blush Hinata didn’t give him an answer.

 

“I don’t uh…” Kageyama hadn’t thought past the one all important question and found himself fumbling for words. “It’s been a while since college and I’m not really uh...emotionally? At the same point I was back then, but I kept thinking about it and I think I could get there again. And I want to try. Because I wanted to be more than a friend back then and I think I still want to now.”

 

During Kageyama’s speech Hinata’s had started smiling and had gotten to the point that it was so wide his eyes were squinting. His face was still as red as a tomato, but he started nodding his head so quickly he almost fell forward. “It’s been a long time since college, I agree. But I’m not drunk and I’m not as much of an idiot this time, so I’m going to say yes. Let’s go. On a date. Right now!”

 

There was a cheer from the gym door and Kageyama and Hinata both turned to see the entire girls team clustered in the open doorway.

 

“You go nii-chan!” Natsu yelled while pumping her fist in the air. The rest of the girls started clapping.

 

Hinata moaned and covered his face.

 

“Hey lovebirds!” Kageyama whipped around, ready to have a staredown with the next person who decided to tease the two of them.

 

Tanaka and Nishinoya were both grinning and giving them a thumbs up while in a ridiculous imitation of the super hero pose. “We’ve got this cleanup thing covered, get out of here.”

 

“But--” Hinata pulled his hands away from his face and started to turn, but before he could actually face Tanaka and Noya, Kageyama grabbed his hand and surged to his feet.

 

“You know what? I’ll just owe Noya-san one this time. Let’s get out of here.”

 

Not really caring that he was leaving his gym bag and everything inside of it behind (Noya would _probably_ bring it back to the hotel for him), Kageyama started for the door with Hinata stumbling along behind him. He couldn’t bring himself to care that the girls formed two lines and started clapping again as they walked out of the door.

 

None of that mattered because Hinata had laced their fingers together and was laughing as he let Kageyama pull him, and for the first time it seemed like everything between them had finally managed to align.

 

 

 


	7. Epilogue

Epilogue:

 

Kageyama jammed a baseball cap onto his head and tugged the medical mask over his face as he dashed into the gym between plays. A couple people gave him suspicious looks (because he looked super conspicuous like this, he knew) but most thankfully ignored him.

 

He had to shove his way through a small crowd of students to get to the front railing and lean over to wave at one of the girls on the bench who had turned around to look at something in the crowd. She stared at him for a moment before her eyes widened in recognition and she elbowed the girl next to her and whispered something in her ear. That girl leaned over to tug on Hinata’s shirt and gesture frantically behind them.

 

When Hinata turned around to look he actually did a double take when he spotted Kageyama and quickly threw a hand over his mouth to cover what was obviously a laugh.

 

Kageyama scowled back at him as somebody tried to shove him out of the way. He held tight to his spot because Hinata grabbed something from the bench and walked over.

 

“Hey. You’re late.” He tossed something up to Kageyama, which he saw was a laminated pass with Tsukishima’s name on it written above the word “GUEST” when he caught it. “I got you permission to sit on the bench with the team so stop taking up spectator space and get down here.”

 

Kageyama pulled the pass over his head, nearly dislodging his cap as he got it caught on the brim, and turned to push his way out of the crowd so he could get back to the stairs and down on the floor instead.

 

“You look so suspicious right now.” Hinata leaned in to whisper once Kageyama had dropped down on the bench next to him. “You still suck at disguising yourself.”

 

Kageyama shrugged and watched as the opponent’s team served the ball. “I don’t normally have to bother, but don’t you think it would cause a panic if a member of the pro volleyball team walked into a high school competition full of students who played volleyball and would definitely recognize him?”

 

Hinata didn’t reply, his eyes focused intently on the game as one of his girls spiked the ball successfully to earn a point.

 

“It’s for the same reason you put Tsukishima’s name on my tag right?”

 

Hinata snorted. “I did that because the officials didn’t believe me when I said Kageyama Tobio was coming as a guest observer for the team.”

 

Kageyama shrugged and pulled the mask down to hook it under his chin. From this position the people in the stands wouldn’t be able to see him so he was probably safe from being recognized. Across the court Natsu broke from her receiving position to wave enthusiastically at him for a second. He smiled and waved back, then quickly tugged his cap farther down over his eyes as the referee turned around to look at what had caught her attention.

 

“So why were you late?” Hinata scribbled something down on his clipboard, eyes never leaving the game as his team served.

 

“Coach kept us late at morning practice and I missed the train that would have gotten me here on time because of it.” Kageyama flicked his eyes to the side towards Hinata for a moment. “Also I dropped off some stuff at your apartment.”

 

It was just a few gifts from Kyoto where the team had been the week before to play an exhibition match for a local charity

 

Kageyama could hear the grin in Hinata’s voice when he replied, “Oh good, you did get it then.”

 

Kageyama hadn’t been sure what to think when he had found an envelope addressed from Hinata with nothing in it with a key and a note that said ‘for the next time you visit.’ There was no explanation of what it was and Kageyama had been too much of a wimp to straight out ask Hinata if it was actually an apartment key.

 

He had been pretty relieved to find it was when he had gone to drop the stuff off, because there wasn’t a backup plan for what to do with all the things he had bought Hinata if he couldn’t have gotten in.

 

“So what did you bring me? Anything good?” Hinata had turned away from the game and was looking at Kageyama eagerly.

 

He shook his head and reached out to gently grab Hinata’s chin and turn his head forward again. “Eyes on your team. And it’s a surprise so you’ll have to see when we get back.”

 

“Oh, when _we_ get back?” The stands broke into cheers as Natsu served and managed an ace. Kageyama’s shout was lost in the noise but it didn’t matter because Natsu had looked over and clearly seen him cheering her on.

 

Kageyama, surrounded with positive energy and cheering as he was, turned and leaned in suddenly to bump his nose against Hinata’s, not caring who would see it. He pulled back while Hinata stared at him wide eyed and blushing.

 

“Yeah. When _we_ get back.”

 

 


End file.
